Hic Habitat Felicitas

T.V. and Happiness, Again...

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

A new survey corroborates another set of studies which show that happy people watch thirty percent less T.V. than unhappy people. The General Social Survey has shown that happy people report watching an average of 19 hours of television per week and unhappy people report watching six more hours of television on average (education, income, age and marital status were controlled for).

The survey revealed things that wouldn't surprise those who follow this blog. Happy people are more socially active and attend more religious services than unhappy people.The survey also shows that happy people vote more, and read the newspaper more often than unhappy people. I found this a bit surprising in light of the evidence that suggests extremely happy people are a bit less politically active (and realistic) than their moderately happy counterparts.

The researchers have established a correlation between watching television and being unhappy but they don't know whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more television watching leads to unhappiness. After all, T.V might be a way for unhappy people to avoid dealing with the things that make them unhappy. Again, if you follow this blog, you are probably aware that another explanation of this data has been proposed: people who watch television are engaged in passive downtime (such as 'pooping out' in front of the boob-tube) miss out on the gratification of engaging in active downtime (such as riding a bike) or social activities which have been shown to increase your subjective well-being.

These explanations aren't mutually exclusive, and I would argue that television is probably part of some sort of vicious cycle (or shame spiral).

    Excelsior!

    C.L.Sosis

Politics, Realism and Purpose...

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

Arthur C. Brooks has written a new book on Gross National Happiness. The data seems to show that radical liberals are happier than moderates, and that conservatives are happier than liberals. Brooks claims that extremists are extremely happy because they are certain they are right.

I haven't read the book but I would argue (tentatively) that extremist liberals are sadder than their conservative counterparts because they have a more realistic world-view (this claim is empirically verifiable), and that moderates are less happy than liberals and conservatives because they lack the sense of purpose liberals and conservatives enjoy (this claim is also empirically verifiable).

It seems that this theory is already partially supported by the extensive research on depressive realism which has shown that depressed people, as a matter of fact, have a more realistic perception of their importance, reputation, locus of control, and abilities. I imagine my interpretation of the data would also be bolstered by research which has shown that people with a sense of purpose tend to be happier than those without a sense of purpose.   

                                                                                   Excelsior!

                                                                                   C.L.Sosis

P.S. Listen to this interview with Arthur C. Brooks.

Children, Spirituality and Happiness...

 

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

I'm an atheist. That being said, a new study (which I haven't read, I can't find it, I've seen reports but I don't think it has been published) seems to show that spirituality has a significant positive effect on the subjective well-being of children. Don't send your kids to Jesus Camp just yet. Keep in mind, this study seems to show that spirituality has a relatively enormous positive effect on the subjective well-being of children, not religiosity, so you might consider teaching your children the lessons of the Buddha before you ship 'em to a madrasah. This study doesn't examine the long term effects of spirituality on the subjective well-being of children but it has been shown over and over again that spirituality and religiosity do in fact (for one reason or another) have a small but significant positive influence on the subjective well-being of adults and it should be noted that the Character Strengths and Virtues handbook lists spirituality as a character strength/virtue.

                                                                                        Excelsior!

                                                                                        C.L.Sosis

The Most Popular Course at Harvard is...

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

This past August, Jon Stewart interviewed Tal Ben-Shahar, author of the best-selling book Happier and teacher of Harvard University's most popular class, Psychology 1504 (Positive Psychology). I can't believe I missed it!

                                                                            Excelsior!

                                                                            C.L.Sosis

P.S. You should check out Matthew Pianalto's blog, Happiness and Philosophy, which has an interesting lecture by Matthieu Riccard on meditation and happiness.

Don't Judge Me: Moral Reasoning and Well-Being...

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

Templeton Prize winner, Jonathan Haidt, delivered an excellent lecture at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies on the place of harm/care and justice/fairness (as well as other non-western moral sentiments) within the context of evolutionary/moral/folk psychology. It includes an interesting discussion of the moral intuitions of liberals and conservatives.

Haidt catalogs our moral intuitions, and he seems to believe we should use this catalog as a guide to good moral reasoning. This seems to be the wrong way to formulate a good guide to moral reasoning. If we were carefully catalog our epistemic intuitions, for instance, it would be idiotic to use that catalog as a guide to good reasoning. If we did, in epistemology, what Haidt does here, in ethics, we would reason as our forefathers did: poorly. There is a better way! Our epistemic intuitions aren't reliable guides to good reasoning. It would be a miraculous coincidence if our moral intuitions were perfectly reliable guides to human well-being. 

In the end, Haidt is content to kowtow to conservatives and leave everything as he found it. If we were to follow his lead, we would encourage bad moral reasoning, moral reasoning that conforms to our moral intuitions but ultimately undermines our well-being.

                                                                                       Excelsior!

                                                                                       C.L.Sosis

                                                                                                                                                         

Davidson on Television!

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

Last night, 20/20 interviewed Dr. Richard Davidson (Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison) who has isolated and identified the neural correlates of well-being and affective style. Even though the interview was stupidified for popular consumption--Bill Weir (pictured) is an idiot--I recommend you read the primary source, here.

                                                 Excelsior!

                                                 C.L.Sosis

P.S. You might want to read Davidson's earlier work on the positive effects of meditation (he and the Dalai Lama are freinds).

Memento Mori...

Hello Fellow Hedonists,

According to a new study (From Terror to Joy: Automatic Tuning to Positive Affective Information Following Mortality Salience) your automatic, unconscious psychological immune system generates positive associations after you are confronted with existential dread. Apparently, these defense mechanisms help us cope with the paralyzing depression and despair thoughts of our mortality elicit. According to Terror Management Theory (which isn't merely good name for a death metal band), it makes sense from an evolutionary point of view.

I wonder if these findings can really be explained by the fact that approximately 85% of Americans are religious and, presumably, believe in an afterlife which is, I shall assume, something to be happy about. Nathan DeWall, one of the authors of the studies, seems to consider this a plausible hypothesis: "When you ask people, 'Describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you,' people will report fear and contempt, but also happiness that 'I'm going to see my grandmother' and joy that 'I'm going to be with God.'" Personally, I'm far more concerned with pollution levels in heaven.

Now, consider the following just-so-story. People believe in a pleasant afterlife because when they reflect on death (an unpleasant thought), they inevitably imagine what life after death is going to be like (a neutral thought, initially), and what we imagine is inevitably influenced by the coping mechanisms that are designed to protect us from the negative effects of the unpleasant thoughts that originally inspired us to think about what the afterlife is like in the first place.

Thus, we imagine a pleasant afterlife. These thoughts assist our coping mechanisms, which reinforce our pleasant thoughts about the afterlife, which assist our coping mechanisms, etcetera. I suspect that these pleasant thoughts and coping mechanisms are instigated and reinforced by society in general. These findings might provide a socio-psychological/evolutionary explanation for why most people believe in a pleasant afterlife. These findings might even provide us with a good reason to encourage people to believe in a pleasant afterlife (or, at least, watch more Bergman).

                                 

                                                                                             Excelsior!

                                                                                             C.L.Sosis